Tesla's Autopilot system is the most advanced available right now, but it has limitations, and some of those limitations might be us.

Stress and anxiety are complex, and the brain chemistry involved in those experiences are no exception. Here we explore the chemicals responsible for your brain’s response to stress.

This week, a group of scientists estimated the cost of saving just one small village in America’s Chesapeake Bay from rising sea levels, and another found evidence that Smilodon (aka the saber-toothed cat) actually helped take care of...

For millions of people with Parkinson’s disease, movement becomes much harder. But researchers have found that dance therapy may help them both physically and mentally.

Today, Craig is going to finish up our discussion of the First Amendment with freedom of the press. Like an individual's right to free speech, the press has a right, and arguably responsibility, to tell the public what the government is...

The math of backpropagation, the algorithm by which neural networks learn.

Accepting the 2006 TED Prize, Dr. Larry Brilliant talks about how smallpox was eradicated from the planet, and calls for a new global system that can identify and contain pandemics before they spread.

In some parts of the world, girls are as likely to be married off or trafficked as they are to be educated. Photojournalist and TED Fellow Smita Sharma thoughtfully depicts overlooked girls and young women, while making sure not to...

If patients seem to be unaware of their obvious conditions and symptoms, it might not be that they're in denial, but their brain might actually prevent them from realizing their disabilities.

Can't wait to get into outer space? Well there's a bit you need to know first... Spending time in zero gravity can have some pretty extreme effects on the human body. Still scientists are already making plans for long trips to other...

Ink that conducts electricity; a window that turns from clear to opaque at the flip of a switch; a jelly that makes music. All this stuff exists, and Catarina Mota says: It's time to play with it. Mota leads us on a tour of surprising...

Today, thanks to better early detection, there are 63% fewer deaths from heart disease than there were just a few decades ago. Thomas Insel, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health, wonders: Could we do the same for...

As archaeologists pored over ancient tombs in western China, they discovered some surprisingly well-preserved and familiar relics. Though hardened over 1,000 years, there sat little crescent-shaped dumplings. So who invented these plump...

From gigantic planets too close to their stars, to those in unfathomably wide orbits, astronomers have discovered seemingly impossible solar systems that shouldn’t exist at all. But they do.

We’ve learned a lot about how the human brain works, but there are still new discoveries and mysteries each year, and 2019 was no exception. We learned pretty big things, from internal compasses, to mysterious sniffers, to brain-washing...

Big-brained scientists have found the mechanism that may have allowed their brains (and all humans') to get so big.

Oxygen levels in the Martian atmosphere are mysteriously inconsistent, and scientists don’t have a clear explanation for what’s behind the changes. Meanwhile, scientists DO have explanations for the tiger-like stripes on one of Saturn’s...

What do the first stars in the universe, dark matter, and superior siege engines have in common?

The land of the free has become a legal minefield, says Philip K. Howard -- especially for teachers and doctors, whose work has been paralyzed by fear of suits. What's the answer? A lawyer himself, Howard has four propositions for...

Parallel Universes - Many Worlds

Evoke a familiar tune in a song and get slapped with a lawsuit ... it's a tale almost as old as copyright itself. Lawyer and technologist Damien Riehl digs into why "owning" a melody is a ludicrous legal assertion and composes a radical...

Near the end of 2020, we got some puzzling but good news: COVID-19 fatality rates have been dropping. Here are a few factors that might help explain why we’re seeing this trend.

SciShow News explains how evolution and antibiotics have teamed up to produce an ordinary germ that can now, sometimes, kill people. Also, our favorite piece of science equipment -- the Large Hadron Collider -- has big plans for this...

Hooray for technology! It makes everything better for everyone!! Right? Well, no. When a new technology, like ebooks or health trackers, is only available to some people, it has unintended consequences for all of us. Jon Gosier, a TED...